Complicated Man
by Nidhogg - The Malice Striker
Summary: An AU based off of the Superhero Academy forum here on FanFiction, based in a sort of Monster Hunter universe basically. Yeah, complicated to describe.


_**Greetings all, this is an AU for a few characters from the Superhero Academy forum I'm a part of. Mainly this is dedicated to a special someone who has had a rough day and requested the type of fic.**_

 _ **Disclaimer: I do not own DC comics and the rights to each of the fan characters goes to their respective users.**_

 **Outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, 1865**

Johnathan Ragnar was a complicated man, he and his brother had been orphaned at a young age, but John had still somehow gained a quality education that lead to a few doctorates. His brother worked in a bell tower in France, often confused to be a hunchback or something. And John had been helping a monster hunter named Noah, a recurring patient of his, track down a banshee in Ireland that had been attacking innocents for some unknown cause.

"Stay with the cart, John. Keep your earplugs in, John. Bloody bastard, I'm the one who should be telling him off for doing such dangerous like this." John said, looking through the cart. There was a variety of different items, mostly blades and knives that Noah used for his hunting purposes. There were also some experimental firearms that John had been working on, such as a handheld version of the German Gatling gun. There were a number of vials with strange contents that Noah had simply dubbed as "bait." John could've sworn one had winked at him.

"Well, I can say one thing about him, he's eccentric." John muttered to himself, scratching the back of his neck. He decided to look through the handbook he had on him, "Monster Hunting for Beginners: Volume one."

"Like I'm a beginner." John said before spitting on the ground. "I didn't see Noah in the room when I had to dissect a Manticore. And I never fainted at the sight of open-heart surgery. Gorgon or not." He complained openly as he looked in the book, his eyes drifted to a page about Wraiths. "A being of darkness, Wraithes are living shades. They take many forms but appear human, making them quite dangerous to track, concentrated light is the best way to deal with them, but a silver bullet would do the trick."

"Where the hell do they find these things?" John asked to no one in particular.

All of a sudden, a bright yellow light shot into the sky, a signal flare that John had worked on in the past. "At least it works." John said to himself, grabbing his medical bag like the signal stood for.

John made his way through the woods until he saw Noah, sitting next to the Banshee. The withered looking creature had a bloated stomach, meaning one thing to John. "She's pregnant? I thought they only looked female."

"They reproduce asexually, but this one can't give the birth naturally." Noah described.

John knew what had to be done, he went into his medical bag and brought out a sterilized scalpel and some anesthetics. He applied the anesthesia and prepared to do a cessionary section. Noah looked sick as the scalpel cut into the Banshee, and he fainted as well. Noah awoke a few hours later, being pulled back into town on the wagon by John.

"What happened?" Noah said groggily.

"The mother died, the kid lived." John said solemnly. "A couple other banshees, her sisters perhaps, took the kid in."

"Listen, sometimes you lose some, but at least there's a new guardian for the clans now." Noah said. "And we can't save all of the good ones."

"I know, but this is pretty much the last time I'll be working with you for a while." John said, pulling out a letter. "I've got to go to a large medical conference in Italy, so you'll be on your own."

"Yeah, well, I've been fine on my own quite often." Noah said.

"Last time you came to me riddled with cuts, you're lucky you didn't catch any fatal infections. Just be careful this time, or else I'll start charging you for your patch-ups." John said.

 **Three weeks later**

John was walking back to his hotel in Italy, the conference was taking longer than he expected, but liked the change in scenery nonetheless. He looked around the city of Venice and contemplated the thought of moving here. But he shook off the thought after he realized the attention his "condition" would bring. John looked at his pocket watch and made his way up to his room, when he saw a woman struggling with his door.

"Why isn't my key working?" She muttered to herself as John walked up.

"Because that's my door." John said before unlocking it and opening it. "My guess is your door is the one across from me."

The woman walked to the door and unlocked it. "Thanks, what's your name?" She asked.

"My name is Dr. Johnathan Ragnar, but my colleagues call me John." He said, the girl looked him up and down before coming to a realization.

"You're that monster from London, the one they call Hyde." She said, causing John to lose the color from his face.

Johnathan Ragnar was a complicated man. He had been a curious doctor after the first few times he and Noah worked together, he had the idea that something in the monsters they hunted could help him, as John had been diagnosed with a rare disease that caused his bones to slowly grow more brittle. This caused him to ask his brother for help through mail, as Alex had become stronger after inhaling some gargoyle dust. After some correspondence between the two of them, John decided to mix some blood from different monsters. After some tests, John found a mix between troll blood, cockatrice blood, and cyclops blood that would cure his disease. Unfortunately, he didn't realize the side effects. The monster blood cocktail he had injected in himself cause him to gain a separate personality, one with a monstrous body to match it. He gained the name Hyde from the newspapers, as his monstrous identity would always find a way to hide from the police and disappear without a trace. John had made some peace with the beast, but he never thought anyone would ever figure out by looking at him.

"H-how could you possibly know that?!" John demanded and answer after checking no one was around.

"It takes a monster to know one." The woman whispered in his ear, "And as a Wraith, I can easily find a monster hiding in the shadows."

"A living Shade." John muttered, remembering the passage from the book he read earlier.

"Shade? I like that name." The Wraith said. "You may call me Shade."

She pushed John into his room and wrapped him in shadows before he could do anything. "Look, I get that you don't trust me, but it's better to have someone who could control shadows help you in any way you want."

"Why do I feel like you're gonna blackmail me." John said, his anger growing.

"Because then you'd possibly die in the end, and I'd rather not be responsible for a handsome guy like you dying." Shade said "So, I suggest you not mention my being here to any of your monster hunting buddies, otherwise I might have to tell them." She added before unwrapping the shadows around him and leaving him in his room by himself.

John Ragnar was a complicated man. For the first time he found a beautiful woman, one who could challenge him due to her having strange powers. He felt a smirk grow on his face, as both sides of him agreed that they loved a challenge.


End file.
